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07/26/2005 Archived Entry: "The Economist on Americanisms"

I was interested by this page from the Economist's style guide, warning those who wish to write for them about indiscriminate use of Americanisms. Some of these I didn't know were Americanisms! "Regular is not a synonym for ordinary or normal: Mussolini brought in the regular train, All-Bran the regular man; it is quite normal to be without either." Do you think district is preferable to neighborhood? The two don't sound like exact synonyms to me. In Seattle we have the "International District" (instead of Chinatown because it was never only Chinese), but surely I used to live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

If I followed these suggestions, would my prose sound more British? (Via JJG.)

(tags: TheEconomist, JJG, Americanisms)